The present invention relates to a novel ZnS thin-film electroluminescent element.
The electroluminescence phenomenon was discovered in the 1930's, and thereafter the engineering application and the peculiarities of the phenomenon have been studied by many research workers. The novel phenomenon discovered by the present inventors' studies shows that a kind of thin-film electroluminescent element, such as a ZnS thin-film EL element, of the type having a ZnS electroluminescent layer sandwiched between a pair of dielectric layers, i.e., the double insulating type structure, not only shows excellent electroluminescence but also exhibits a hysteresis phenomenon within, for example, the light emission versus applied voltage characteristics. It is possible to cause the above-described ZnS thin-film electroluminescent element to have the function of memorizing information by utilizing the hysteresis phenomenon. Therefore, the ZnS thin-film EL element becomes very useful, though a variety of applications of such EL element in the field of solid-state electronic technologies.